The List of the Dead
by The Bibliomaniac
Summary: Spoilers to the end of Doctor Who season 2. "I saw the list of the dead. It said Rose Tyler..." Captain Jack, Utopia


**Disclaimer: No, none of the Whoniverse belongs to me. Why would you even think that?**

Jack rubbed his eyes tiredly. He checked his watch. 6:30. He sighed. Time always creeped by so slowly when he was doing unpleasant tasks. Jack looked back at the file on his desk. It was a thick file, full of names: all those known to have died in Canary Warf, Torchwood London. He was entering all the names into the Torchwood records. Despite the thickness of the stack of papers, Jack felt somewhat lucky. UNIT had insisted on handling all the casualties outside of Torchwood. That shortened Jack's list by several thousand, he figured.

He looked back at his watch. 6:31. Okay, he thought to himself, finish the T's and then you are done for the night. He looked down to find where he was. Tucker, Jonathon, Rank: Sergeant. Jack frowned: another military person. Seriously, why did Yvonne insist on having military personnel? He could accept to some small degree the amount of people she had employed, Torchwood One being the most active Torchwood's. But military? Why? Jack had never been able to have a conversation with Yvonne without it lapsing into a pissing contest about the Doctor and aliens in general, so he had never actually asked her about it. He suspected though that the military aspect of Yvonne's Torchwood stemmed directly from those same views on alien life.

He finished with the name and scanned down for the next one. It was the last on the page: Tyler, Jacqueline, no body. Once again, a frown skittered across his face. Why was the name familiar? Of course the Tyler part reminded him of Rose, but Jack was pretty sure he did not know any Jacqueline's. He typed the name into his computer. An alert flared. Apparently, there was no Torchwood operative named Jacqueline Tyler. A civilian then. Jack shrugged. Torchwood employee or not, she had died in Canary Warf and therefore went into the record. He created a new profile and entered the data in. It was a shame, he thought, that there was no body, nothing for the family to bury. He knew that could be rough on loved ones. Jack pushed that thought aside. If he continued being that gloomy, he would never finish this list. He could be somber, but he had a job to do, and sentimentality would not help anyone.

He turned the page. Tyler, Rose, no body. Tyler, Rose… ROSE! Jack felt his breath leave his body. Rose was dead? A great feeling of despair washed over him. No, it could not be. Not unless the Doctor was there too. Jack started a search on his computer for the Torchwood One security footage. Tosh had looked at it earlier and told him that the video had cut out before the attack started and only restarted after it was over, so Jack had not given it much thought. But there was a chance…

There was Yvonne; she looked very excited. He fast-forwarded and switched cameras to follow her. There, in the hold! A very familiar blue box. A man stepped out of it. It did not look like the Doctor, but Jack had heard rumors that Time Lords could change their face. Supposedly something like that had happened this past Christmas. Perhaps that was where the hand Jack had found had come from. The man… the Doctor reached into the Tardis and pulled someone out. It was not Rose. It looked like her though. Jack cast his thoughts about. Jackie Tyler! Of course, Rose's mum. Jack was about to congratulate himself on remembering when he realized: she was on the list of the deceased list as well.

But what about Rose? Where was she? Jack fast-forwarded again, following the Tardis as it was moved rather than the Doctor. If Rose had been in Canary Warf, then she was still in the Tardis in the video. Finally, someone was leaving the Tardis. But it was too fast for Jack to tell. He re-winded and played the video at normal speed. Yes, it was definitely Rose. She was in Canary Warf, and things were looking grim. Grasping at straws, Jack fast-forwarded again. There was a chance, since there was no body, that Rose had left with the Doctor. The screen burst into static. This would be the attack, then. Jack continued going forward until the static stopped. There was the Tardis, standing all alone. The Doctor suddenly entered the scene. He was walking very slowly, his back to the camera, and there was a droop to his shoulders that had not been there before. Jack went numb, as if someone had dropped him in a pool of ice water, or more accurately, as if he had just been shot in the heart and was dying.

Jack watched in growing horror as the Doctor opened the Tardis door. He turned around, allowing Jack to see his face for the first time. It was covered in grief and streaked in tears. He took one last look around the empty room and stepped into the Tardis, which then disappeared. "NO!" shouted Jack and violently shut off the computer.

He sat, staring at the black screen. Rose truly was dead then. He closed his eyes, remembering her. Rose as when he first met her, when they went traveling together, the last time he had seen her on Satellite Five… Rose as a little girl he had watched grow up. Jack shuddered. He was no stranger to death. He died often enough and knew so many people through the centuries who had died… but Rose… she was special, she was his companion, she was… dead. God, he needed to get drunk.

He got up and opened the door to his office, ready to leave. Wait. He should not go alone. Grief needed company. He had learned that through the years. Who to ask? Not Tosh, she was no good in pubs. Suzie was no good either. She was weird about death, as though it were a minor inconvenience. Too much time with the glove, Jack thought. As far as he was concerned the only death that was inconvenient was his own. So that left… "Owen!" he called out.

"What?" Owen appeared from the medical area.

"You, me, the pub, now," said Jack. Owen frowned and glanced at the clock. 7:05. He really wanted to leave to go eat dinner, not get drunk. Jack saw his hesitation. "I'm not asking you to get drunk with me, just to come along; as I did for you." Jack threw in a small barb.

Owen winced. Jack had gone to the pub many times with Owen after his fiancée died, patiently keeping him company while he got drunk. For Jack to bring that up, no matter how obliquely… He took a closer look at Jack's face. It was miserable. He seemed about an inch away from breaking down and crying. It was unnerving. Owen decided that Jack had run across someone in the deceased files that he had known. He sighed. "Let me just put away some of the samples I was checking."

Jack nodded and went to get his coat.

**A/N: Did you know that the chemicals released in your brain have a positive correlation with your overall health? Reviews make me happy... not that I'm suggesting anything... *Shifty eyes***


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